Pelicans May Only Have 7 Players Available Saturday and That Sounds Really Unsafe

The New Orleans Pelicans are on the road tonight against the Miami Heat. That was already going to be a tough matchup for them, especially since the Heat are off to such a great start to the season thanks to Jimmy Butler and some confident rookies.

But with forward Brandon Ingram listed as questionable with knee soreness, the Pelicans might be down to only *checks notes* seven players active for the game. And that sounds really, really bad.

New Orleans is already down Zion Williamson, and the likes of J.J. Reddick, Lonzo Ball and Jahlil Okafor have already been ruled out for tonight's game. If you add Ingram to that and the Pelicans will barely have enough players for a starting lineup, much less a competitive 48-minute game.

The risk of even further injury given how thin these guys will be stretched is notable.

The Pelicans are lucky that the Heat are going to be down some key players themselves, as Butler and Goran Dragic are questionable and Justise Winslow and Derrick Jones are out.

NBA teams are big on load management these days, but if you are the seven Pelicans players healthy and out on the floor tonight, you can throw management out the window. Prepare for high-usage mayhem.